Awaited ‘Trinity Test’ cancer study may be released in 2019

The National Cancer Institute says its long-anticipated study into the cancer risks of New Mexico residents living near the site of the world’s first atomic bomb test likely will be published in 2019.

Institute spokesman Michael Levin told The Associated Press that researchers are examining data on diet and radiation exposure and expect to finish the study by early next year.

Levin says the study will then be published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal and could be available by spring 2019.

Residents say the World War II-era Trinity Test caused generations of southern New Mexico families to suffer from rare cancer and economic hardship.

Residents did not learn that the test had involved an atomic weapon until the U.S. dropped bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the war ended.

Monday is the 73rd anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.